Hope: A Story About Vong

Part 2 — Voyage To The New World

When Vong woke up, it was already morning, a faint sliver of sunlight seeping in through a small hole in the boat. Vong took a peek through the hole and he found himself looking at dense palm trees lining the river on each side, the river opening not far ahead.

Vong was still confused, but it was slowly becoming clear to him that they were leaving their homeland. He wanted to ask why and where they were headed exactly, but since everyone else in the cabin was quiet, he decided to keep silent. He would have wanted to stretch his legs and go out for some fresh air, but he somehow understood that they had to stay inside. There was still a chance that they could get caught by the river police.

Vong sat quietly beside his Grandma and thought of their beloved water buffalo, as well as his kite and his flute. He suddenly wished he had brought both with him. There was nothing he could do about it now, though, and looking around at all the other people squeezed into the cabin, he realized they did not have many things either and so he decided not to complain.

He tried to think of happy thoughts, imagining what kind of place they were headed to. Would it have endless green rice paddies that he could run across, too? Or would it be very different with tall buildings perhaps that he had seen in the books at his school, or castles even?

After a while, though, Vong could not stay still or silent any longer. He was feeling hungry.

“Grandma, I’m hungry,” he whispered.

His Grandma looked at him sadly. Then, she whispered something to his mother, who was sitting on her other side.

Vong’s mother took out a bag of sweet potato chips from her bag and handed him a few. Then, she poured him some water in a bottle cap to drink.

“We don’t know how long we’ll have to stay in this boat, so this is all I can give you for now,” she told him.

Vong nodded, eating the chips slowly and drinking the water. By the middle of the afternoon, he was starting to feel hungry again, but remembering what his mother had told him, he said nothing. He just closed his eyes, trying to think of happy thoughts again, and when evening came, he went to sleep early.

The next day, their second day on the boat, Vong woke up early. Excitedly, he looked out the hole again, hoping to see something different from yesterday, and oh, was it different indeed. There were no more trees in sight, nor any land. All he could see was water everywhere and he could smell that the air was salty and cooler as it whipped against his skin.

“We must be in the Pacific Ocean,” Vong thought.

He watched as the waves hit the sides of the boat, rocking it gently and causing it to creak and he felt a little happier. Not everyone was happy, though. Some of the people in the cabin were starting to get seasick and as a result, the cabin was becoming more uncomfortable. Still, the captain would not allow anyone out of the cabin, fearing that some Thai pirates would spot them.

The next day, their third day on the boat, Vong once more looked out at the ocean but unlike yesterday, this time, he was scared. Not only did the water look as dark as the night sky, but the waves were also bigger, no longer rocking the boat gently but jerking it violently from side to side and making it creaks louder.

Vong was scared. What if the boat they were on sank in the middle of the ocean? What if all of them ended up drowning?

Vong was also not feeling well, since he hadn’t eaten properly in the past three days, and they were already out of water, too, and so he was feeling weak and dehydrated. He huddled even closer to his Grandma and tried to sleep to recover some of his strength. After a while, though, he woke up to a strange, new sound.

Curious about the sound, Vong looked out of the hole and he saw a big ship a distance away.

“Dad, look! There’s a big ship!” Vong said to his father excitedly.

His father took a peek in the hole. “It looks like a cargo ship,” he said.

Vong kept his eyes on the ship, amazed by its size, wondering if the ship was going to rescue them. After a while, he saw some boxes being lowered on to their boat. Then, the cabin door opened and the captain brought one of the boxes in.

“That ship couldn’t rescue us,” the captain said. “But at least, it gave us food and water to keep us alive.”

Vong’s mother helped the captain distribute the food and water inside the box among the families in the cabin. Then, she handed some to Vong.

Vong was glad to be able to eat and drink and he gobbled all the food up and drank the water quickly. The next day, though, on their fourth day on the boat, Vong felt even more unwell that he could not eat or drink. He was starting to get seasick just like the other people in the cabin and he was also tired, not only physically but emotionally. He felt as if he would get stuck in that cabin forever, and he did not know how long he would be able to last in that small space.

He rested his head on his Grandma’s lap and closed his eyes. He imagined that he was flying his blue and white rhombus-shaped kite across the rice paddies and that he was swimming in the river with the water buffalo. How he missed doing those things and how he wished he could do them now.

By evening, Vong felt even worse and so his father brought him up on deck. There, they both laid down and looked up at the starlit sky. Vong was happy to see the stars again, which seemed brighter than when he last saw them, and he felt a little better. He watched them flicker like diamonds, as if they were blinking at him. Then, suddenly, one of them started to move across the sky.

“Look, Dad!” Vong pointed at the sky excitedly. “It’s a shooting star!”

“I see it, too,” Vong’s father said. “Quick, make a wish.”

Vong closed his eyes and clasped his hands together as he whispered, “Wherever we’re going, I wish we’ll get there soon.”

“We will,” his father assured, pulling Vong into his arms to give him a warm hug.

Vong snuggled into his father’s chest since he was starting to feel cold. After a few minutes, though, his father suddenly sat up.

“What is it, Dad?” Vong asked. “Do you see another shooting star?”

“Big ship! Big ship!” his father started to shout.

Vong, too, sat up and sure enough, he saw a big ship headed right in their direction. A few seconds later, the boat captain joined them and using his telescope, he confirmed that there was indeed a big ship coming. He gave Vong’s father a tire and a can of kerosene, telling him to set the tire on fire and hang it so that they could catch the attention of the big ship. He also handed Vong a white flag.

Vong was still feeling a little weak but the warmth from the bright fire his father made and the thought of finally leaving the small boat gave him strength so that he was able to wave the white flag as high as he could. Soon, the large ship sounded its horn. It had seen them!

Slowly, it approached the small wooden boat. As it did, Vong saw that the name of the ship was Cap Anamur. It seemed to be the largest ship Vong had ever seen!

Vong watched as the sailors on the big ship lowered a long ladder to connect to the small boat. Then, one by one, the sailors carried a person from the boat and carried him up to the big ship on their strong shoulders.

Vong was one of the first people to be brought up to the ship and as soon as he got there, he sat on the big deck and watched as the rest of the people from the boat were carried up to the safety of the ship. He felt safer now.

Once everyone was aboard the Cap Anamur, the big ship started to sail away. Vong looked at the wooden boat which had taken him away from his home, watching it until it became smaller and finally sunk into the dark Pacific Ocean water. Then, he turned to the captain who greeted everyone with a smile.

“Wilkommen an Bord!” he said.

Vong saw that everyone else seemed to be smiling now that they were on the big ship. Suddenly hungry and thirsty, he ate and drank what the captain and his crew offered him until he was so full.

Vong loved being on the big ship. After a few days, it was time to leave the ship. The Cap Anamur took them to the island of Palawan, one of the largest islands of the Philippines in Southeast Asia. There, Vong and his family were brought to a refugee camp enclosed by barbed wire fences, where other families that had fled Vietnam were also staying.

“Why are there barbed wire fences, Dad?” Vong asked as they entered the camp.

“It’s because we’re not allowed to leave the camp,” his father explained. “We are refugees.”

“What is a refugee?” Vong asked.

“A refugee is someone who has left his country,” his father said. “Right now, we will have to take refuge here until we find a new country where we can live.”

Vong quickly learned that life at the refugee camp was different from life at home. There was no school for him to attend and no animals to take care of. In fact, there was not much for him to do except to wait for news about their new country.

Still, being in the camp was better than being cramped up in the small wooden boat. At least here, Vong could run around and play games with the other children. He could also go to the beach everyday so he could swim just like he used to do in the Mekong River and make castles out of the soft, white sand. He was even able to make a kite out of newspapers and sticks, which he played with on the beach.

At night, Vong and the other refugees would gather around the fire. They would sing songs and tell stories, mostly about life in Vietnam. It was during one of those stories that Vong learned the real reason why they left their home. He learned that after the war, life became more difficult in Vietnam, especially because of the re-education camps, which was just another word for prison camps. Although his father had never shown it, he had been worried about the future of his family, especially of his four children, which was why he and his friends had decided to save some money and build a small, wooden fishing boat so they could escape the country and go to America — the land of opportunity.

After learning all these, Vong realized just how much his parents had to sacrifice and he did his best to help them. Slowly, as the days passed in the refugee camp, Vong grew up, no longer a child who was merely concerned with playing, but a young man. Like the rest of his family, he was prepared to make sacrifices and like them, he waited anxiously to begin his new life in America.

Every month, more refugee families came to Palawan refugee camp, fleeing Vietnam in search of a new country and a new life. With help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, many families accepted entrances to Canada, Australia, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Norway.

Patiently, Vong and his family waited for their turn to go to the United States of America and finally, after 12 months, their wish was granted.